What Goes Around Comes Around

What’s on your trading-mind this morning? Are you watching price move around around your charts? Sometimes I feel like a cat perched on a windowsill watching birds flying around. How I wish I could just grab one! Are you reading up on economic reports, data reports, political actions, and global weather? If you’re part of the Combo Traders group I know you’re finding all sorts of tradeable space on your charts today. Yipeeee! Happy trading.

Today I’m thinking about money.

When I was little I remember visiting my grandparents, and if Grandpa wasn’t home, I knew Grandma would say, “Oh you know Grandpa, he’s down at the bank counting his pennies.” I heard that so many times, and I may never know what it meant. I don’t know if he was down there making deposits and carrying out daily banking chores, or if he enjoyed the outing, making conversations with the pretty bank tellers, or if he genuinely went down there to examine his balances, look in his safe deposit box, browse through his CDs and stock notes. My grandma said, every time he went down to the bank, he found a few more pennies. For some reason, almost 20 years after his death, I still think of him “counting his pennies.”

Today I’m thinking about money, and instead of trading, I’m counting my pips. I had an excellent run of trading the past six straight weeks, and I feel like saying to my children, “I’m counting my pips this week.” Of course they will be as confused as I was when Grandpa went to count his pennies. The markets have shifted a little over the weekend. Some ranging pairs look like they might be starting new trends, or looking for new levels to range around. Market conditions change, and last week’s trade setups might not work as well this week. If you made some pips too, maybe take a moment with me this week to hang onto what you’ve got, and count your pips. It leaves you with a sense of accomplishment.

My grandpa was an accountant for Coca Cola, and besides making a real decent living, he made a fortune in his Coca Cola stock when he retired. He lived simply. He understood money in a way that people from my generation can’t quite get. He wasn’t Ebeneezer Scrooge, but sometimes I wish he had spent more of it on my grandma. Then again, I’m sure he’d roll over in his grave if he knew how much I spend on my kids’ creature comforts rather than packing it away in a bank. Somewhere in between there are some excellent thoughts about money, and I’m trying to find those thoughts today.

Currency: Has to do with flow, polarity, movement, person to person exchange, rumors, passing of time, runs from one place to another such as a river, widely accepted, belonging to a time that is passing, publicity, most recent desired thing.

Money is like other things that have a current, water, electricity, wind, heat — seeking a path of least resistance, flowing where it’s needed. We need it to flow in and and flow out to light our homes, nourish our bodies, clothe our children and pay for our homes. We want to save it up, but as soon as it stops flowing, it’s useless or even harmful. It sounds so calm and zenful to think money will just flow into my bank account and be available to flow out to pay for all the stuff I want and need. In reality you and I know it takes a thing we call “hard work” to fill up our bank accounts and the more we do it, the more money we have in the bank. (It works that way for you too, right?) There is a tug-of-war between “calmly attracting affluence” and the “sweat blood and tears” and 20 hours of overtime we put in to make the bigger paycheck; and since I can feel the tug, I feel compelled to think about the fact that two things exist. Maybe even they are both necessary. The East and the West — the path of least resistance where the grass just grows, water just flows, and affluence shows up; and the place where hardship produces unmatched character, unquestionable growth, creativity, invention, motivation and change. Wow.

Wow…

I kind of like that thought.

My life is like that. I trade for a living, and sometimes it’s as calm and “zenful” as owning a money tree:

It has not been an easy road. No one should ever tell you trading is easy. Trading is difficult, but we are not afraid of difficult. Difficult is the thing that made us stronger. It’s the thing our pop stars sing about (well besides singing about sex and physical hotness and how great your butt looks on the dance floor. Difficult is the thing that we congratulate our children for when they graduate from high school with sleep, anxiety and eating disorders, earning their academic honors and half their college credits by the time they’re 18, and that with varsity letters in two sports. Difficult is what gets people on the track to something better. Every difficult thing produced an opportunity for growth and greatness. I can’t say I regret the hardship in my life when I look at the life-muscle it produced. Granted we have a few extra gray hairs and other signs of tough times, but you might agree those character-building experiences certainly had a role in our lives.

I spent the day thinking about money, about how it flows, and about that road to Hard Work we are required to travel every now and then.

Most of the time I think about trading, and I look for more setups and find opportunities in my charts every week. This week I’m taking a moment to count my pips. I feel grateful to have them transporting dollars into my account; I feel grateful to share great ideas with you, my online trading friends, and I feel grateful that the things which are difficult didn’t scare me away as I grew and became a successful productive trader.

I hope you have a wonderful week. Take a moment to count your pips, or count your pennies. Flirt with the bank teller, spread some cheer to the workers you see, flash a smile to box-boy at the grocery store. What goes around comes around.

Jennifer

http://twitter.com/tradeforincome Israel Garcia

Nice article Jennifer, very positive.

Sky

That was truly a beautiful article. Like Forex poetry? Really made me take a step back and appreciate what the markets are doing for the small percentage of the successful. Inspired.